First of all please excuse me if this is an inappropriate place to post this thread. I am new to these boards and I apologize in advance for that

I am starting an all ages music venue in Northwest Arkansas (specifically Springdale) where the sale of alcohol is not permitted in the building. That is not a big deal though because my target audience is junior high/ high school kids.

As I'm sure you all know, that age group breaths energy drinks. I am looking sell all kinds of energy drinks at my shows but don't want go to to Sam's Club to pick up the 24 pack of the 3 brands they have.

I can move a large volume of drinks and am willing to put up advertisiments for the energy drink companies. Is my best option to try to work out a deal with a distributor? If so, how would I go about doing that?

Thank you for your help, everyone!

The best thing to do is talk to the companies, my question to you is how are you going to benefit from it if you are promoting their products and not recieving anything in return besides you bringing more business to them.

Abie1
Matrix Juice

Monster and Red Bull for the most part. Teens seem drawn to these brands because it is "Cool" A few might want to be adventurous but most will not.

__________________
My energy drink website
http://www.edjunkie.com/

I was hoping that if I allow the companies to advertise they would give me a better deal on the product, right?

From my experience, energy drink sponsorship of a business is few and far between. It is purely a numbers game, i.e. how many people will see their product compared to other marketing venues. Plus if for some reason you were the perfect fit, the energy drink company might ask to be an exclusive, and that doesn't sound like something you would want.

You can buy drinks from distributors and sometimes direct if there is not a distributor available. If you visit the website of a particular energy drink there is a good chance you can find their list of distributors, or if you contact them they can tell you the best option.

From the perspective of a small company like ours with low margins, the big trick is going to be the shipping. As an example, a case of RootJack weighs approximately 33 lbs. That is a pretty hefty thing to ship Many times the only way to get a decent price on shipping is to buy larger quantities like a full pallet (~60 cases). That is why it can be far more convenient to buy from a distributor since they are taking the bulk purchase hit, and you only need buy the number of cases you need at the time.